Today I went to visit Front Door Communities, led by Paula Kelso, with whom I met.
Front Door Communities is a non-profit organization whose primary purpose is to provide a respite for homeless women. They are located at 49 N. 4th Street, San Jose, CA 95112.
I was attracted to learning more about Front Door Communities because, when I read
their story, it sounded as if they were a small church like we are and they did ministries according to what they were able. It sounded like they started small and grew as they were able, led by the Spirit and the needs.
It turns out that is true. The ministry was started by a PCUSA church. That church building now houses Front Door Communities. The church closed June of 2019, by that time down to 11 members. Paula Kelso was the minister. Her role became to pastor the church as it went through the closure. At first, Paula stayed away from the Front Door program, but in the end she became involved and now is the only fulltime paid employee. Paula did not go into too much detail, but it sounds like the church closure process was very difficult, with people being hurt and angered. At this point only one previous member is still involved with Front Door Communities.
The church property and much of the surrounding properties have been purchased by a development company. So far, there are no specific plans to level the building and develop, but they know that will be happening, probably in a few years.
Below are some photos that help tell the story of Front Door Communities.
This is the literal front door of Front Door Communities. The greeting table sits right outside the previous sanctuary. Outside you see the front gate. The church built a fence because homeless people were sleeping in the yard. It was a hazard for the church members and volunteers as well as the homeless people themselves and the neighbors.
In spite of the decision to build a fence because homeless people were sleeping on the grounds, they do still sometimes sleep close by. As I waited in the parking lot, several people walked up to the entrance gate, read a notice there, and walked away. This man did not even go to the gate. He adjusted his hood, then lay down.
I was interested to observe my thoughts as I watched. First, I thought he'd do as the others -- read the notice and walk away. When he stopped to adjust his hood I thought he was going to take it off because he was going inside. Then he went to his knees and I was befuddled -- was he going to do yoga or something? Finally he simply lay down with his head on his arms.
Several views of the previous sanctuary. You can still see the holes in the carpet where they took out the bolted-down chairs. They have gone through several configurations of this room. Now it has tables and a buffet for "Lifted Spirits," hot lunches for women 3 days a week. They converted the "stage" area to a sort of living room, where the women can sit, talk, read books, and magazines.
A clothes rack and water cart they put outside when giving away lunch bags 3 days a week.
The food storage and prep area for the lunch bags. They partner with Second Harvest and must follow stringent guidelines of individually wrapped food, all stored above the floor, and with specific temperature control.
The kitchen. The Second Harvest guidelines must be followed here, too, with separate food prep areas and monitored temperatures in the fridge.
The computer room, open to the clients when they are in the building.
A sleeping room, where the women can take a nap in clean sheets and blankets while they're in the building.
The prep room for the clothing boutique. Paula said sometimes it looks like this and sometimes it looks like you don't know what hit it. They are blessed with a volunteer who is a professional organizer. She helped to clear out and organize the whole building, and you can especially see her touch in the clothing boutique. The rack at the back here is one she is creating for Valentine's Day, with red and pink clothing.
Entering the clothing boutique.
The organizer has experience in retail and knows that when people enter a store, they first go to the right. This is the first rack on the right. You can see things are clearly labeled and organized. There are a few skirts and dresses, which they don't get too many of, then everything sorted by size.
Within the sizes, they are sorted by color. A true organizer for sure!
The "models" (mannequins), coat rack, and counter.
One plus-sized rack (pink hangers). Paula is showing me some leggings. They received a donation of several of these.
A list of toiletries they give out at the boutique.
Four women at a time are allowed in the boutique, always with a volunteer. They can take a basket with different colored ribbon on each so they know which is theirs. This is a favorite ministry at Front Door Communities and you can see why! The women can shop, take a shower, put on their new clothes, then come back to rest, visit, read, etc. They feel like a person again.
Clothing donations come in from various people. They learn about it by word of mouth, or like me, seeing something about it online. All the clothes are washed and hung to keep them nice. If they receive clothing they can't use, they recycle the totally unusable and donate others to St. Paul's, the Salvation Army, the Food Bank or other organizations.
Paula is one dedicated woman. She said she typically comes in at 9:30 am and leaves around 8 pm. As with our church and so many others, there are not enough volunteers, but those who come are amazing. Paula said they give way beyond what could be expected of volunteers and they are a joy to work with. She said she loves -- absolutely loves -- coming to work every day. She grew up in Puerto Rico and saw many layers of poverty. She decided to grow up and help people. She has been a pastor for many years but never did work like this. Now, she says, she feels like she is really "doing church."
It's kind of ironic that although Front Door Communities is doing church, they are no longer a church and not even associated with one. To comply with being the type of non-profit organization they are now, Paula removed religious symbols from the building such as the crosses. Yet, as she said, she is definitely doing church. She pastors the clients and volunteers. At the lunches she invites anyone who would like to pray into a circle of prayer. She said she does plenty of "preaching" and even gets into theological discussions on occasion.
Before I left, I asked some questions about how things work. As I mentioned, Paula is the only full-time paid employee. There are a couple clients who work at some jobs for minimum wage -- greeting and being a kitchen assistant. Front Door Communities is fully self-supported with donations. They do some fundraising to encourage donations and word-of-mouth garners others.
They are also learning about ways they can get donations in kind or grants. Bombas Socks has donated socks to Front Door Communities, for example. {Paula said she bought and gave all her loved ones Bombas socks for Christmas this year.) They also partner with some other organizations, one of which provides a mobile shower and laundry facility that is parked on Front Door's property on a scheduled basis.
As I mentioned, there are not enough volunteers and plenty of need. Not everyone wants or is able to interact face-to-face with the clients, and that is fine because there are plenty of ways to help "behind the scenes." Administrative work is needed for things like record keeping, reporting to various agencies, bookkeeping, and so on. There's a need for technological skills, too, for things like their web page and social networks.
There is need for boundaries, as well. I talked about how hard it is to figure out the best thing to do for the homeless who camp on our campus from time to time. We have given out toiletry packages, researched and gave out lists of places that would help, and even offered (at least a couple times by Trent) to drive them someplace for help. But, so far, no one has let us help them in that way. Some of our homeless visitors have caused harm to the campus -- such as exposing wires on the outdoor electrical outlets. They have had screaming matches at night resulting in complaints from the neighbors. Finally, it has become our policy to remove any belongings we find and try to make it uncomfortable and inconvenient to stay there. But we are a church! How can we Jesus followers turn away the very people Jesus says to take care of?
Paula was very sympathetic. At Front Door they have come up with guidelines and boundaries, such as who is allowed into the building when, including their lunch bag ministry that is only run from outside the building. They have definite hours when they provide things such as the hot lunches, access to the boutique and other places. Their primary purpose is homeless women so women who have a home but are still in need are only allowed in the boutique once a month. People don't like and even resent rules like these. It is not easy to say no, but Paula remarked that sometimes saying no is also helping the homeless, as well as protecting those who work in the program.
When I talked about my wondering if our church could do something like this, Paula said there is a lot to think about. For example, to my surprise, she said that when the church started this ministry, they lost members, especially young families.
Does their loss of young families surprise you, as it did me? I thought the younger generation, in general, had more of a heart for helping communities like the homeless. Maybe this loss of young families doesn't happen in all cases, but there is a lot of fear and some feeling that the people in a homeless situation have done something wrong that made them get there. It seems like some volunteers recognize that, there but for the grace of God, go I.
It is not easy to start a program to help the homeless, even something small to begin with. We have a heart to help, but there is a lot to learn. Some advice for our church was to start by participating in Front Door's ministries -- those who are interested -- to get the actual experience of what it's like. People could come and help giving out lunch bags, preparing and serving the hot lunches, assisting in the boutique, and so on. It's one thing to want to help, it's another to truly do it.
I was thinking we could reach out to the churches around us, such as St. Tim's, FAC, the "Saturday Church," the church behind us and any others nearby. Perhaps there would be some interested people that could potentially become the core group of a ministry in which we all participate. Right now, though, since we are focused on becoming a meal church, maybe it would make sense if we see if people want to participate in Front Door Communities' ministry. It will be good preparation for whatever we may do in the future.
What are your thoughts?
